[UK-CONTEST] Commonwealth Contest 2008 - next weekend 8/9 March

[Peter Hobbs]

Hi all

Most subscribers to this forum will not need reminding, but the 2008 Commonwealth Contest promises to be even better than usual, given reasonable conditions.  This year, we have 6 fully subscribed teams from  Africa (yes!) Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the Rest of the World.  Substantially more dxpeditions are under way especially for the event than we've seen in the past, most of which will be participating in the Team Competition, the awards for which are this year sponsored by Paul O'Kane EI5DI of SD fame - many thanks Paul!

As well as the well-known SD (Super Duper) logger which supports single operator entries in all the RSGB sponsored contests, Paul has made available for many years now his dedicated logger - SDC - the only one to support all features of the Commonwealth Contest.  The latest versions of SD and SDC can always be downloaded free of charge from www.ei5di.com.

The Commonwealth Team Competition, first run in 2007 to coincide with the ICC Cricket World Cup and which is still structured on cricketing lines, proved very popular and has now become an integral part of the Contest.  It certainly ensures that a wide range of DX stations will be available to all participants next weekend, free from the attentions of the usual EU and US  competition!  The full contest rules and details of all the teams can be found at Bob G3PJT's "BERU" website at www.beru.org.uk.  The Commonwealth Contest has gone from strength to strength in recent years and participation is at an all-time high since it was first run in 1931 - the oldest competitive amateur radio event of them all.  See you there!

73, Peter G3LET
Commonwealth Team Competition Umpire